


Wine Not

by titaniumsansa



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Evil, Coughing, Crimes & Criminals, Death, Evil, Evil Plans, F/F, Gay, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Minor Character Death, Murder, Not Canon Compliant, Oneshot, Out of Character, Patricide, Potentially out of character, Prompt Fic, Prompt Fill, Villains
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-21
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-08-05 04:17:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16360625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/titaniumsansa/pseuds/titaniumsansa
Summary: Evil AU Zatanna and Artemis invite Sportsmaster over for dinner to drink wine, among other things.





	Wine Not

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sunkelles](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunkelles/gifts), [NullLit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NullLit/gifts).



> The prompt for this was: Inktober Day 1: Poison.  
> This fic never would have happened without Lalit, she sent me the prompt list she's been using to write amazing things, and I sat down and this came out.

Sportsmaster is surprisingly fine with the fact Artemis is gay. It's a kind of acceptance she didn't expect or anticipate from him. It doesn't hurt that she's dating supervillian Zatanna Zatara, head over heels for her, actually. He's meeting them at their apartment for a nice dinner, so Zatanna can finally meet him formally. They've met before, but not while Artemis and Zatanna have been dating. He doesn't use their doorbell, just knocks on their door, hard and loud.  
Artemis gets the door, she and Zatanna have been cooking for the last hour. Cooking with Zatanna is one of her favorite things, at least when they have time for it. Making bread from scratch, pasta sauce from scratch, pasta from scratch, dessert from an old family recipe, it tastes amazing. Sportsmaster has a bottle of wine in his hands and a grin on his face. He's older than Artemis remembers, not that she sees him without his mask very often.  
"This is for you, where's your girlfriend?" her father asks, handing her a red wine. It's a pretty nice one she guesses by the label. She's not usually a wine drinker, but Zee loves her red wines. Zatanna will have to be the judge of if the wine will pair well with dinner, but Artemis lets him in before she speaks. It's been eight months since she's last seen him. Even now, as an accomplished villain, he only cares about her powerhouse girlfriend.  
Still, Artemis fakes a smile.  
"She's in the kitchen, getting dessert out of the oven," Artemis answers. Zatanna appears, perfect in every way, gleam in her blue eyes.  
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Crock," she says. It sounds genuine and Artemis knows it isn't. Her father grins and beams though.  
"Smells good, what did you make for dinner?" he asks. Artemis shuts the door and locks it. Not like anyone outside their door could be dangerous. They're dangerous, even as they fake smiles and walk to the kitchen.  
"Homemade pasta with white sauce, garlic bread and dessert is a surprise," Zatanna tells him. He takes that in as Artemis hands the bottle in her hands to Zatanna. She grins as she reads the label.  
"This will go well with dinner," Zatanna says.  
"That's why I brought it," Sportsmaster says. Artemis busies herself with helping Zatanna move food as her father sits at the table. Zatanna pulls a vial out of her pocket as Artemis returns to open the wine bottle.  
"Put it in this glass," Artemis points to one separate from the other two wine glasses on the counter. Zatanna nods and pours the clear liquid into the glass. The wine cork pops and Artemis pours equal measures into each glass.  
"I'll take his out first," Artemis says.

Zatanna nods as she slides a wine stopper into the bottle. Artemis knows that if she wanted to turn back, this would be the moment to stop this. She has no regrets for what she's about to do. Zatanna approves, if she didn't, she wouldn't go along with it. It's not like they haven't killed before-this is nothing. This is house cleaning. It's just pulling weeds out of the garden. She's sustained herself on this over the years-the plan she's had in the back of her head since her mother died. This has always been an absolute. Eventual, fated, decided, she's counted the words for it on her fingers and planned it a million different ways. As long as the end result is the same, she doesn't really care. Part of being a villian is having multiple plans and that's what she's good at. There's always back up plans crowding the back of her mind.  
Her father accepts the wine glass with a careful smile, and takes a sip immediately.  
"I love this year," he tells them, as Zatanna comes out with the other two glasses. Artemis can't believe their luck. He brought the wine, he thinks that she was being respectful by serving him first, and he can't even taste what they put in his favorite wine. Artemis glances at Zatanna and resists the urge to grin like an idiot.  
Dinner begins, there's small talk about the heroes of the Justice League, other villains, and the food. It's what Artemis expected, but she didn't expect him to be so nice to both of them. It changes nothing.

  
"This bread is pretty good," he says to Zatanna. Coming from him, that's high praise. It's funny he's talking about bread because he's obviously trying to butter Zatanna up. He must want something from them or think something's up.  
"Family recipe," Zatanna tells him.  
"Artemis knows all of our family recipes," he tells Zatanna. He means bombs and weapons, of course. All of their real family recipes, the food recipes, died with her mother. Her father is so arrogant that he thinks she doesn't blame him for her mother's death. She does. He raised her to be angry, strong, and vengeful. She still is in some ways. That's killed her and kept her alive.  
_Eye for an eye_ , she thinks as she watches him take another gulp of wine. He drinks it like it's beer, something that drove her crazy when she started drinking alcohol herself. It's not a glass of soda, it's supposed to be sipped at.  
"We might need some more wine by the end of dinner," he comments before he takes another bite of his pasta. He won't be alive by dessert, but that's best left as a surprise.  
"I thought we could switch to a nice alcoholic affogato or Irish coffee," Zatanna tells him.  
"Interesting. You did well for yourself, baby girl," he says, looking to Artemis. If there was any doubt in Zatanna's mind, Artemis knows it's gone now. There wasn't any doubt when they first discussed it either, but he's acting almost like a normal parent. Artemis isn't quite sure what Zatanna said to him when she first contacted him, to get him to come here, to one of their safe houses dressed up like a real apartment. They've only been here a few hours. The fridge is empty. There's barely anything decorating this place, but Artemis knows what her father notices and what he doesn't.

  
"When are you two gonna tie the knot? You have my permission," he says, looking from Zatanna back to Artemis, who does her best to hide the fact she just choked on her bread.  
"I thought we were going to discuss that after dinner," Zatanna hints and Sportsmaster laughs.  
"A gem like you? No way Artemis hasn't thought about marrying you already," he says. It's true, Artemis has wanted to marry her for a long time, but anyone could see that. He's not being paternal or intuitive by guessing that. She and Zatanna are alike in many aspects, if they want someone in their lives, they keep them. Dead weight is discarded, people who aren't worth their time don't get any, and people who aren't useful are avoided. Not in a cruel way, just in a factual way, people who tend to tangle with them end up dead or worse off. That's just life as a criminal, the fewer normal people who see them or interact with them the better.

  
Her father coughs and takes another sip of his wine. Artemis takes a bite of her pasta and watches with a neutral face. He coughs again, wet and loud. Zatanna fakes a look of concern like she doesn't know what they did-it's so convincing it takes Artemis to remember she knows. Zee has always been a good actress, but she's never been good at lying to Artemis.  
Her father coughs and coughs, reaching for wine that will only exacerbate the problem as Zatanna tells him she'll get him a glass of water from the kitchen. Artemis pretends to look concerned as she too gets out of her seat. Her father clutches his chest and neck, and she watches him cough harder, eyes and face turning red from the force of it. He tries to reach for her, but Artemis stays out of his reach. His breathing turns shallower with each breath he takes, and in a minute, he stops breathing at all. Artemis watches him die in front of her with a warm sense of satisfaction in her chest. He's not stupid enough to be faking, if he could have reached her, he would have tried to kill her.  
"It's a shame you're going to miss dessert," Zatanna says, and his red eyes move from her to Artemis. He dies and they watch his body for any of signs of life for a few more minutes. Artemis moves to touch him and waits for him to try something, but he's cold, turning stiff. They did it.  
Artemis reaches for her best friend, her confidante, her literal partner in crime, and the love of her life. Relief sweeps through her like a breeze blowing leaves and she smiles into Zatanna's shoulders.

  
"He was right about one thing though," Zatanna muses. Artemis pulls back to look at Zee's face.  
"What was he right about?" Artemis asks. Zatanna gives her a sly grin.  
"When are you giving me a ring? We should get married," Zatanna tells her with a serious look on her face.  
"Pick a stone and I'll get a ring made," Artemis proposes. They've stolen so many precious gems and jewels that she has a mountain to pick from.  
"I'm thinking a fall wedding, far away from Gotham," Zatanna tells her.  
"We can pick a venue after we dump his body and clean the apartment," Artemis suggests.  
Zatanna grins like the cat that ate the canary.  
"Perfect," Zatanna agrees.

 


End file.
